Denise Coates’s £260 Million Payday: A Deep Dive into Bet365’s Record-Breaking Payout
Denise Coates, the enigmatic co-founder and majority shareholder of online gambling giant Bet365, has once again topped the list of Britain’s best-paid executives after receiving a total payout in excess of £260 million for the 2024-25 financial year. Newly filed accounts show that Coates’s remuneration package — a mixture of salary and dividend income — climbed sharply following strong revenue growth at the Stoke-on-Trent-based business, even as pre-tax profits fell significantly.
In numbers that would be eye-catching in any corporate context, Coates took home £104 million in salary alone, a figure that dwarfs most UK executive pay packets and reflects her unique compensation structure as majority owner of a privately held company. In addition, she received at least half of the £313.6 million paid out in cash dividends to shareholders — a portion attributable to her controlling stake in the business — bringing her total payout to around £260.8 million. This represents a 65 per cent year-on-year increase from the roughly £150 million she received in the previous period. Financial Times
Bet365’s financial backdrop was mixed. Group revenue did grow, rising from approximately £3.69 billion to £4.03 billion over the year, underscoring the company’s continued appeal in a competitive global betting market. However, the group’s pre-tax profits plunged by 43 per cent to just £338.5 million, partly due to increased costs and strategic repositioning in key markets.
The scale of Coates’s reward comes against the backdrop of shifts in the online gambling industry and broader economic headwinds. Bet365 exited the Chinese market — long thought to be one of its largest revenue streams — quietly in March, a move that has fueled speculation about future strategic options, including a possible sale that could value the business at around £9 billion. But while revenues expanded, the profit compression has heightened scrutiny of Coates’s compensation, which critics argue remains disproportionately high relative to performance.
How does Coates’s payout compare? In absolute terms, her latest haul falls short of the astronomical highs she previously set: during the Covid-19 pandemic, Coates earned a record total payout of about £421 million in a single financial year. Nevertheless, she comfortably out-earns her peers. For example, in recent years the chief executive of London-listed telecoms group Zegona earned roughly £131 million — around half of Coates’s latest package.
Coates’s career arc is itself a rare success story in British business. Born in 1967 and educated at the University of Sheffield, she took over her family’s betting business with her brother John more than two decades ago. They built Bet365 from a portable building in a car park into one of the world’s largest online gambling platforms, pioneering real-time online sports betting and expanding globally. Wikipedia
Yet the size of her pay packet has repeatedly provoked debate. Executive pay watchdogs and think tanks have criticised the vast sums being extracted by a single individual from a private company, especially in an industry often associated with social harms related to addiction and consumer finances. Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, has in past years characterised such payouts as “hopelessly inefficient” and disproportionate to broader social contributions. Although Bet365’s charitable vehicle, the Denise Coates Foundation, donated tens of millions to community causes, critics argue that philanthropic giving does not offset questions about pay equity and industry ethics.
From the company’s perspective, Coates’s compensation reflects her entrepreneurial risk and performance. Bet365 remains one of the UK’s largest taxpayers — contributing nearly half a billion pounds to the Treasury — and continues to post robust revenues even in a slower profit environment. The company emphasises its innovation in product offerings and its strategic investments in regulated markets such as the US and South America.
Ultimately, Coates’s nearly £260 million payout encapsulates the contradictions of contemporary executive pay. On one hand, it testifies to the commercial success and global reach of a business built from scratch. On the other, it highlights persistent tensions over income inequality, corporate governance in private companies, and the social license of sectors like gambling in the UK and beyond.
The post Denise Coates’s £260 Million Payday: A Deep Dive into Bet365’s Record-Breaking Payout appeared first on European Business & Finance Magazine.
